How do we get Web content to reflect the richness of the francophone community? Simply by sustaining it with the help of people who make up its diversity.

Participants of the content workshop suggest favouring the exchange of information by providing existing community radio stations with adequate hardware to broadcast and store information.

“The main way to ensure development is to equip people so they will collaborate and interact amongst themselves,” supports Clément Laberge, who claims to have seen “both the best and worst of technology” when working in education. Thus, people will be able to acquire this tool and offer their expertise.

The education process depends on accessible technology. Participants were sceptical about illiterate people eventually using the Web and instead focused on how to make the Web accessible to the general public, evoking the idea of resorting to “public writers” who in the past acted as readers and authors for the underprivileged. One of the examples that marked the discussion was the computerization of the Senegalese Post, where the technology now serves the rural population.

The “professionalization” issue also came up numerous times around the table. Should we be training journalists to be technicians or vice-versa? There was no real answer. However, the interest of participants was aroused when Clément Laberge described the Quebec model, in which developers are divided into two groups: Webmasters, working on the technical side, and Webeditors, in charge of content.

According to the group, one thing is certain: training must play a dominant role. It is necessary to set up training workshops. “What we have done with the nodes and the networks, we will have to do for the content,” believes Odile Ambry, host of the workshop.

Marie-Julie Gagnon / www.lienmultimedia.com

Article mis en ligne le 13 juin 2002